Philippe Clement admits the hope for new Rangers signing Mohamed Diomande is to develop him into a top player and sell him on for a huge profit.
The Belgian spoke honestly about the player trading model he wants to help control at Ibrox alongside director of football Nils Koppen, who is also working through his first transfer window in Glasgow.
Ivorian midfielder Diomande signed initially on loan yesterday and will then make a reported £4.3m permanent switch from Nordsjaelland to Rangers in the summer.
Nils Koppen named some of the qualities 22-year-old Diomande will bring to the first-team and is looking forward to seeing him offering his services to the club.
How long that will be for is unknown – it will all depend on how much of a success Diomande can be with Gers. Clement stressed that Diomande is the type of signing Rangers want to be making.
The club simply cannot splash out £10m plus on individual talents so must work smartly to ensure that they players they buy have the potential to be worth millions more in the future. And he thinks Diomande can be one of those ‘intelligent’ signings.
Philippe Clement on Mohamed Diomande
Clement told the written press on Friday, as quoted in the Daily Record: “An assessment is made by the whole club, what he (Diomande) is worth now and what he can be worth in the future.
“So it’s a longer term investment in that way. We had a lot of good talks together and I think he’s convinced because of the club, the fans, the project and the way of working and growing as a player.
“We are aligned about that and it’s now about him showing it in the short term but for sure in long term too. He is still developing his strength so I think we can make him stronger here. He is really fast, he is agile, he is creative and he can play disciplined.
“Everybody in the club is convinced he can have a good impact in the short term and in long term is one of the players who is able to grow bigger than Rangers and in that moment make the next step.
“It is clear that almost every club in the world is busy with getting players in that they believe in, that have the potential to grow at their club and become better and in one moment sell them.
“We don’t have an investor who invests every year crazy money into the club every time. We are not a club like that so we need to build a model to gain value out of the players that you bring in or that come out of your academy. And to do intelligent moves at the right time.
“That needs to be the model for the next couple of years and not getting players out of contract, for example, and we have talked about that in the past. It is important that the club earns money through transfers and can grow in the future. Everybody is working for that.”
